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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

A spoof of Alfred Hitchcocks's THE 39 STEPS has opened on Broadway at the American Airlines Theater (what a name for a theater!).

The comedy, which originated in England, has been very well-received. USA Today writes that it "mines Hitchcock's dry wit and breezily sends up the spy-thriller genre." The New York Times calls it "absurdly enjoyable" and notes "many of the funniest — and more surprisingly, the raciest — lines in Mr. Barlow’s play come directly from the movie. This '39 Steps' isn’t using its source material as a satiric target but as an accomplice."

The play also works in references to other Hitchcock movies, including shadow puppet crop dusters (?!). It sounds just a bit like Disney's ENCHANTED, a movie which is both spoof and loving tribute to Disney film history.

The Hitchcock original came up in the comments discussion for my post on SABOTEUR over the weekend. There are apparently some plot similarities between THE 39 STEPS and SABOTEUR.

In a stroke of good timing, the movie airs on TCM next week on January 22, 2008.